Meet the Spartans

Mark:

It really is quite hard to imagine a film being any less worthwhile than Meet the Spartans. Starting with the tired concept of ‘spoof movie’ is the first mistake – does anyone think there is anything fresh to say in this format? – and then things just get worse and worse.

A concise summary of the ‘plot’ of Meet the Spartans is not possible, but suffice it to say that the film generally follows the outline of last year’s 300, with detours along the way to reference other recent films and pop culture icons.Meet the Spartans King Leonidas of Sparta (Sean Maguire) is visited by an emissary, who states an army of millions will overrun Sparta unless Leonidas accepts the God-King Xerxes (Ken Davitian) as his leader. Killing the emissary, Leonidas sets his small army on course for annihilation.

The ‘humour’ in Meet the Spartans seems to revolve solely around the idea that the Spartans as portrayed in 300 might have been gay. The leather thongs and ridiculous abs of 300 are given a going over, and yet none of what Meet the Spartans has to say is even remotely amusing. Perhaps this is because most who watched 300 recognised the ridiculousness of the costumes and makeup and don’t need it revisited. Alternatively, it could be that movies that rely for a laugh on the suggestion that someone is homosexual belong to another era. Either way, Meet the Spartans falls appallingly short of comedy.

If an appearance in a spoof movie can be used as as measure of impending career annihilation, the stars of Meet the Spartans had better start applying for waiting gigs in coffee shops – actors such as Kevin Sorbo and Diedrich Bader may not grace our screens again if this abysmal piece of ‘filmmaking’ is anything to go by. In fact it seems hard to imagine any of the cast getting paid work again after this… except Carmen Electra who seems bullet-proof after being employed in FOUR such spoofs since 2006!

That Meet the Spartans is a comedy is true perhaps only in the most abstract sense – the film makes a mockery of those who made it. Writer/director team Jason Friedberg and Aaron Seltzer are betrayed as entirely lacking in imagination and surely after being responsible for Scary Movie 1-4, Date Movie, Epic Movie and now Meet the Spartans, someone could let them know this horse they’ve been flogging is well and truly dead.

Rating: 0.0 stars
Review by Mark Lavercombe, 3rd March 2008
Hoopla Factor: 0.0 stars


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